Fayose sues EFCC for N20b over security watch list

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has made good his threat to sue the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for placing him on its watch list.

The anti-graft agency wrote an advisory to key security agencies, demanding that Fayose be arrested if he attempts to flee the country through land, sea and air borders to escape justice.

Fayose, on September 3, threatened to sue the EFCC if it failed to withdraw the advisory within 72 hours.

The governor said the action “not only breached his constitutional immunity, it also exposed him to public opium and ridicule”.

He also demanded the publication of a written apology to all security agencies in Nigeria, three national newspapers and the social media.

It was gathered yesterday that Fayose, through his counsel, Mr. Obafemi Adewale, filed the suit last Friday, following the failure of the EFCC to meet the governor’s demands.

The EFCC, through its official twitter handle @officialEFCC on July 16, tweeted: “The parri is over, the cloak of immunity is torn apart and the staff broken, Ekiti Integrated Poultry/Biological Concepts Limited N1.3 billion fraud case file dusted off the shelves. See you soon.”

Fayose is seeking, among other things, an order of the court mandating the EFCC to pay N20 billion as general damages to him for what he called “flagrant, deliberate, pre-meditated and reckless libel and unprovoked attack on his character and reputation and the breach of his constitutional right/immunity as an incumbent governor”.

He demanded that the EFCC should tender a written apology, which should be circulated to all security agencies in Nigeria and same should be published in at least three widely read national newspapers and through the social media.

The governor is also seeking a declaration that the statements contained in the EFCC letter, dated September 12, and addressed to all security agencies in Nigeria, portrayed him as a criminal, a fugitive and a run-away from the law.

According to him, the statements are not    true, but are malicious and unfair.

Fayose urged the court to further declare “that the EFCC’s letter placing him on a watch list and directing his arrest on sight, even while a sitting governor, is unconstitutional, as same offends the clear provision of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which clothes him with immunity against arrest and prosecution as an incumbent governor”